The Neal Kedzie-To-Rebecca Kleefisch Big Money Trail

I had been electronically ruminating/Googling late one night working on this posting about State Rep. Joel Kleefisch's crane hunt proposal, and one thing led to another to another here you have your basic campaign finance disclosure story.

File it under "How It Works."

The relatively-modestly financed 2010 campaign committee of the politically-moderate State Sen. Neal Kedzie, (R-Elkhorn) ended up among the top donors to the farther-right, Tea Partyish 2010 successful Rebecca Kleefisch for Lieutenant Governor campaign, records show.

Sen. Kedzie could spare the cash, as he won an easy re-election in 2010 with about 72% of the vote.

Of the $79,000 his committee raised, 15% got transferred to Rebecca Kleefisch's committee in two perfectly legal installments - - just before and after the election - - records at followthemoney.org show.

Three requests by email to Kedzie for comment have gone unanswered and unacknowledged.

I ran my findings past Mike McCabe, executive director of the non-partisan money-tracking organization Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and back came his reaction:

Another one of those you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours stories. One member of the political class looking out for another in hopes the favor will be returned some day.

To further understand the significance of Sen. Kedzie's committee donations to the Rebecca Kleefisch effort, here are the leading committee donors to Kleefisch's 2010 campaign, showing the Kedzie Committee tied for second place among such organizational donors, records show:

Top Contributors

TABLE 1: Top 20 Contributors

Contributor	Total	% of Total	Sector
WISCONSIN REALTORS ASSOCIATION	$12,939	3.35%	Finance, Insurance & Real Estate	See Records
CITIZENS FOR KEDZIE	$12,500	3.24%	Candidate Contributions	See Records
TAVERN LEAGUE OF WISCONSIN	$12,500	3.24%	General Business	See Records
WISCONSIN BUILDERS ASSOCIATION	$10,500	2.72%	Construction	See Records

Now from the same financial disclosure site site, let's look at Kedzie's donations to all committees and candidates to grasp how relatively large by comparison were his committee's donations to Rebecca Kleefisch's run for Lt. Governor.

Candidate	Office	Election Status	Party	Records	↓Total↓
KLEEFISCH, REBECCA	GOVERNOR / LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR	Won	REPUBLICAN	2	$12,500	See Records
AUGUST, TYLER	ASSEMBLY	Won	REPUBLICAN	1	$500	See Records
VAN HOLLEN, J B	ATTORNEY GENERAL	Won	REPUBLICAN	1	$250	See Records

Kedzie's committee donations to Rebecca Kleefisch's campaign also exceed all other political committee checks combined to her campaign committee, records show, and were 50 times larger than any donation from a campaign committee not affiliated with her husband. (Note: "People for Kleefisch" is the committee for Republican State Rep. Joel Kleefisch, Rebecca Kleefisch's Assemblyman husband, records show.): CITIZENS FOR KEDZIE Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) ELKHORN, WI $7,500 10/20/2010 CITIZENS FOR KEDZIE Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) ELKHORN, WI $5,000 11/29/2010 PEOPLE FOR KLEEFISCH Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) OKAUCHEE, WI $3,500 09/08/2010 PEOPLE FOR KLEEFISCH Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) OKAUCHEE, WI $3,500 09/10/2010 PEOPLE FOR KLEEFISCH Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) OKAUCHEE , WI $1,500 08/30/2010 PEOPLE FOR KLEEFISCH Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) OKAUCHEE, WI $1,000 06/30/2010 FRIENDS OF SUE JESKEWITZ Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) MENOMONEE FALLS, WI $250 06/30/2010 FARROW, PAUL F Republican Officials, Candidates & Former Members KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) PEWAUKEE, WI $200 09/27/2010 GROTHMAN, GLENN S Republican Officials, Candidates & Former Members KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) WEST BEND , WI $200 08/23/2010 CITIZENS FOR DAN VRAKAS Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) HARTLAND, WI $100 10/08/2010 SCHIMEL FOR DA Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) WAUKESHA, WI $100 01/19/2010 FARROW, PAUL F Republican Officials, Candidates & Former Members KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) PEWAUKEE , WI $75 08/30/2010 JIM OTT FOR ASSEMBLY Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) MEQUON , WI $75 08/17/2010 RICE, JOSEPH A Republican Officials, Candidates & Former Members KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) WHITEFISH BAY , WI $50 08/23/2010 FRIENDS OF KATHY CARPENTER Candidate Committees KLEEFISCH, REBECCA (LTG) KENOSHA , WI $25 08/17/2010    Conclusion: In politics, as in baseball, the minor league teams help keep the big club stocked.